1. family and parenting
2. children

Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
Summary
Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn review recent studies that use
data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine why children who grow up in single-mother and cohabiting families fare worse than children born into
married-couple households. They also present findings from their own new research.
Analysts have investigated five key pathways through which family structure might influence
child well-being: parental resources, parental mental health, parental relationship quality, parenting quality, and father involvement. It is also important to consider the role of the selection
of different types of men and women into different family types, as well as family stability. But
analysts remain uncertain how each of these elements shapes children’s outcomes.
In addition to providing an overview of findings from other studies using FFCWS, Waldfogel,
Craigie, and Brooks-Gunn report their own estimates of the effect of a consistently defined
set of family structure and stability categories on cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes
of children in the FFCWS study at age five. The authors find that the links between fragile
families and child outcomes are not uniform. Family instability, for example, seems to matter
more than family structure for cognitive and health outcomes, whereas growing up with a single
mother (whether that family structure is stable or unstable over time) seems to matter more
than instability for behavior problems. Overall, their results are consistent with other research
findings that children raised by stable single or cohabiting parents are at less risk than those
raised by unstable single or cohabiting parents.
The authors conclude by pointing to three types of policy reforms that could improve outcomes
for children. The first is to reduce the share of children growing up in fragile families (for
example, through reducing the rate of unwed births or promoting family stability among unwed
parents). The second is to address the pathways that place such children at risk (for example,
through boosting resources in single-parent homes or fostering father involvement in fragile
families). The third is to address directly the risks these children face (for example, through
high-quality early childhood education or home-visiting policies).
www.futureofchildren.org
Jane Waldfogel is a professor of social work and public affairs at Columbia University, Terry-Ann Craigie is a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, Princeton University, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn is the Virginia and Leonard Marx
Professor of Child Development and Education at Teachers College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.
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Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
or much of the nation’s history,
the vast majority of American
children were born into and
spent their childhood in intact
married-couple families. Almost
the only exceptions were children whose
families suffered a parental death. Over the
course of the twentieth century, however, as
divorce became more common, an increasing
share of children experienced a breakup in
their families of origin and went on to spend
at least some portion of their childhood
or adolescence living with just one parent
or with a parent and stepparent. A large
research literature developed examining
the effects of such living situations on child
outcomes.
More recently, as unwed births have risen as
a share of all births, family structure in the
United States has increasingly featured “fragile families” in which the mother is unmarried
at the time of the birth. Children born into
fragile families spend at least the first portion
of their lives living with a single mother or
with a mother who is residing with a partner
to whom she is not married. For simplicity,
we will refer to the first of these types of fragile family as single-mother families and the
second as cohabiting-couple families.1
An astonishing 40 percent of all children born
in the United States in 2007 were born to
unwed parents and thus began life in fragile
families. That share was more than twice the
rate in 1980 (18 percent) and an eightfold
increase from the rate in 1960 (5 percent).2
Half of the children born to unwed mothers
live, at least initially, with a single mother who
is not residing with the child’s biological father
(although about 60 percent of this group say
they are romantically involved with the
father), while half live with an unwed mother
who is cohabiting with the child’s father.3
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T H E F U T U R E O F C H ILDREN
These estimates imply that today one-fifth of
all children are born into single-mother
families, while another fifth are born into
cohabiting-couple families. Therefore, in
examining the effects of unwed parenthood
on child outcomes, it is important to consider
both children living with single mothers and
those living in cohabiting-couple families.
Single parenthood and cohabitation have lost
much of their stigma as their prevalence has
increased. But there are still many reasons
to be concerned about the well-being of
children in fragile families, and, indeed,
research overwhelmingly concludes that they
fare worse than children born into marriedcouple households.4 What remains unclear
is how large the effects of single parenthood
and cohabitation are in early childhood and
what specific aspects of life in fragile families
explain those effects.
In this article, we review what researchers know about the effects of fragile families on early child development and health
outcomes, as well as what they know about
the reasons for those effects. Many underlying pathways or mechanisms might help
explain the links between fragile families and
children’s cognitive, behavioral, and health
outcomes. Identifying these mechanisms
is important to efforts by social scientists
to understand how family structure affects
child outcomes and to develop policies to
remedy negative effects. A challenge that
must be addressed is the role of “selection.”
The characteristics of young women and men
who enter into single parenthood or cohabiting relationships differ from those of men
and women in married-couple families, and
those pre-existing characteristics might lead
to poorer outcomes for children regardless
of family structure. Parents in fragile families, for example, tend to be younger and
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
less educated than those in married-couple
families, and they may also differ in ways
that cannot readily be observed even using
detailed survey data. A final question is the
degree to which the stability of the family
setting affects how well children fare. In fact,
recent research holds that it is in large part
the stability of the traditional family structure
that gives it its advantage.
We highlight new answers to these questions
from studies using data from the Fragile
Families and Child Wellbeing Study
(FFCWS)—a data set designed specifically to
shed new light on the outcomes of children
born into single-mother and cohabiting
families and how they compare with those of
children in married-couple families. The
study follows children from birth and collects
data on a rich array of child health and
developmental outcomes, thus providing
evidence on how children’s outcomes differ
depending on whether they grow up in single
and cohabiting versus married-couple
families and on the factors that might
underlie those differences.
We review the evidence on the effects of
fragile families on child well-being by comparing outcomes for three types of families.
The first type is families where children live
with two married parents (for simplicity,
we refer to these as traditional families). In
this category are children living with their
married biological parents as well as children
living with married stepparents. (Research
has documented differences in outcomes
between these two subgroups of children,
but those differences are not our focus here.)
Rather, we are interested in two other types
of families—both fragile families—that have
become increasingly prevalent in recent
years. One is single-mother families in which
the mother was not married at the time of
the birth and in which she is not currently
living with a boyfriend or partner. The other
is cohabiting-couple families in which the
mother was not married at the time of the
birth but is currently cohabiting with a
boyfriend or partner, who might be either
the child’s biological parent or a social parent
(someone who is not biologically related to
the child but who functions at least partially
in a parental role). We do not distinguish
between families that share and do not share
households with extended family members or
with other families or friends. We also do not
distinguish between single mothers who are
in a dating or visiting relationship and those
who are not. Such distinctions likely matter,
but our focus is on the three more general
family types: traditional married-couple
family, single-mother family, and cohabitingcouple family.
Explaining the Links between
Fragile Families and Poorer
Child Well-Being
Many studies, reviewed below, concur that
traditional families with two married parents
tend to yield the best outcomes for children.5
But the specific pathways by which growing
up in traditional families lead to this advantage are still being debated. The key pathways, or mechanisms, that likely underlie the
links between family structure and child wellbeing include: parental resources, parental
mental health, parental relationship quality,
parenting quality, and father involvement. As
noted, the selection of different types of men
and women into the three different family
types also likely plays a role, as does family
stability and instability. We discuss each of
these mechanisms in turn.
The Role of Parental Resources
One clear explanation for the poorer outcomes of children in fragile families is that
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Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
fewer resources are available to these families,
particularly single-mother families.6 As Ariel
Kalil documents in her article in this volume,
single-mother households face a disproportionate risk of economic disadvantage in a
variety of ways—from having less money for
books, clothes, and extracurricular activities to
living in poorer school districts and neighborhoods. Even with child support enforcement,
single parents are substantially more likely to
be poor than their married-couple counterparts, and many children living with single
mothers receive no child support.
In large part, the sparse resources available
to children in single-mother homes reflect
the fact that these homes have only one adult
who can work and bring in income (and the
benefits that often go along with employment, the most important of which is health
insurance). Having two adults in the home
could clearly make more resources available
to children (assuming that adults pool their
resources and use them on behalf of the
family). It matters, however, who the adults
are. Although cohabiting-couple families (by
definition) have two adults living with the
children, the characteristics of these adults
do not particularly resemble those of the
adults in traditional families. Cohabiting
parents tend to be less educated than married parents, and as a consequence they also
have lower incomes.7 There is also evidence
that cohabiting couples are less likely to share
their income or invest in joint household
goods than are married-couple families.
Parents invest not only economic resources
in their children, but time resources as well.
Particularly in early childhood, parental time
is important to child health and development,
and even in middle childhood and adolescence, parental time matters. Children in
fragile families are likely to be shortchanged
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T H E F U T U R E O F C H ILDREN
in terms of time resources too. A single
mother, particularly if she is working, will not
have as much time to give to her children as
would two parents in a married-couple family.
There can be no division of labor within her
household—the single mother bears all the
burden associated with child care, the financial and organizational logistics of the household, and her own welfare.8 At the same time,
children growing up with single mothers get
less time with their fathers than they would in
homes where the father is present.
Although cohabiting-couple
families have two adults
living with the children,
the characteristics of these
adults do not particularly
resemble those of the adults
in traditional families.
Cohabiting-couple families should have more
parental time available for children than
single-mother families. But particularly when
the cohabiting partner is not the biological
father, he is likely to invest less time in the
children than he would in a married-couple
family where he is their biological parent.
The Role of Parents’ Mental Health
Parental mental health is also an important
influence on child well-being, and one that
differs across family types. Single mothers
report more depression and psychological
problems than married mothers and
undoubtedly function less well as parents as a
result.9 Cohabiting mothers have also been
found to suffer more from depression than
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
married mothers, which again would directly
interfere with their ability to display good
parenting skills.10 It is important to note that
these differences may be the result of these
mothers’ living situation or may reflect
pre-existing differences between the types of
women who have children out of wedlock
rather than in marriage (as we discuss in the
section on selection below).11
The Role of Parental Relationship Quality
It has long been recognized in the research
on divorced parents that the quality of
parents’ relationships (for example, how well
they get along and how much conflict they
experience) would be a key intervening
variable explaining links between divorce or
separation and poorer child outcomes.
Clearly, the adjustments and conflict associated with divorce or separation would be a
source of stress, which might in turn impair
parental mental health or detract from
parenting quality. In addition, parental
conflict fosters dysfunctional social interactions in children, leading to emotional and
behavioral problems.12 Children whose
parents do not have a positive relationship
may harbor anger and anguish, which may
subsequently threaten their academic success
and provide the impetus behind early family
formation. Indeed, some researchers have
argued that leaving the nest and starting a
family is a direct response to less than ideal
circumstances at home.13
It is likely that the quality of parents’ relationship influences child outcomes in fragile
families, although the direction of its effects
is not clear.14 One theory is that poor relationship quality (for example, parents not getting
along and experiencing significant conflict) is
likely to spill over to parenting, lowering its
quality. Another theory is that parents who
have poor relationships with adult partners
might compensate by engaging more positively in their relationships with their
children.
As discussed in the article by Sara McLanahan
and Audrey Beck in this volume, parents in
fragile families—both cohabiting couples and
single mothers—tend to have poorer relationship quality than do those in married families
and to report more conflict and less cooperation in parenting. (Single mothers report on
the quality of their dating or visiting relationship.)15 One situation that adversely affects
parental relationship quality in fragile families
is having children with multiple partners.16
The Role of Parenting Quality
Particularly for young children, but also for
older children and adolescents, at least as
consequential as the time that parents spend
with them is the quality of their parenting
during that time. In early childhood, two key
dimensions of parenting quality are sensitivity
and responsiveness to the child. Children’s
outcomes are better when parents are warm
and nurturing, and children fare worse when
parents are either harsh and punitive or
detached and neglectful. Parents also engage
in a range of activities that may promote
or impair children’s health—among them,
arranging for their health care, managing
family meals and nutrition, providing direction regarding exercise and television watching, and being attentive to safety hazards.
Although there is no reason why unwed parents would necessarily have poorer parenting skills, there are many reasons why they
might. As noted, single parents, on average,
have fewer resources, are in poorer mental
health, and have more problematic relationships with their partners—any of which might
in turn affect the quality of parenting that
single mothers provide for their children.
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Cohabiting mothers might also be expected
to have poorer parenting skills than married
mothers, but are likely to have better parenting skills on average than single mothers do.
The Role of Father Involvement
Also of interest is how father involvement may
affect child well-being, particularly in families
where the father does not live in the home.
While in principle a nonresident father could
still be involved in the care of his child, in fact
his involvement will often, though by no
means always, diminish as the child gets older.
Marcia Carlson and Sara McLanahan find that
by age five, nearly two-fifths of children of
unwed parents had no regular contact with
their fathers in the past two years, while
another two-fifths were seeing their father on
a regular basis (the remaining one-fifth fell
somewhere in between).17 Having a father
who is actively involved in the child’s upbringing even though he is not residing in the
household could yield numerous benefits in
terms of child health and development.
Nonresident father involvement might also
benefit children by raising the quality of
mothers’ parenting. Nonresident father
involvement could also, however, be detrimental if fathers acted in ways that interfered
with child health and development or if poor
relationship quality between the father and
mother led to lower-quality parenting behaviors on her part.
The involvement of resident biological fathers
and social fathers in cohabiting-couple families is also of interest. As discussed, particularly when a father is resident, the quality of
his parenting is likely to be an important input
into child health and development. So too is
the quality of his relationship with the mother.
Father involvement has been linked with
fewer child behavioral problems, even when
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T H E F U T U R E O F C H ILDREN
the father is a social father only (that is, the
romantic partner of the mother living in the
child’s household).18 The quality of a father’s
involvement has also been associated with
child cognitive development and language
competence.19
The Role of Selection
A common challenge in research in this area
is that parents who are single or cohabiting
may have attributes (both observed and
unobserved) that differ from those of married
parents and that also foster adverse child and
adolescent outcomes. Men who choose to
cohabit, for example, may not have the same
family values that men who choose to marry
do. As a consequence of such attributes, the
negative “effects” being ascribed to single
parenthood and cohabitation may be
explained by the pre-existing attributes of
members of these families, rather than
reflecting an effect of the family type.
Although some of these differing attributes
can be controlled for using survey data on
characteristics such as age and education,
other differences may be harder to measure
even in a detailed study such as FFCWS. A
parental characteristic such as a lack of strong
family values is hard to observe in survey data
but it may be at work within the family
system, simultaneously influencing both the
structure of the family and child well-being.
Most research has not been able to address
selection in a very convincing way. Studies
typically include extensive controls for
observed characteristics, often including
controls for characteristics before the child’s
birth or the family’s entry into a particular family structure. Accounting for such
observed differences in parental and economic resources, however, is not sufficient,
because there are likely to be unobserved
differences as well. Couples that engage in
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
out-of-wedlock childbearing as opposed to
childbearing within marriage may differ from
each other fundamentally, in ways that are
not observed in typical survey data.20
Because controlling for selection is so
important in obtaining unbiased estimates of
the effects of fragile families, we pay particular attention in this review to studies that
have attempted to do so. One method that
has been used often is sibling comparisons
(comparing the outcomes of siblings born to
married parents with the outcomes of siblings
born to parents whose family status differed
at the time of their birth). This method, however, is limited in that it derives its findings
from blended families and also in that it is not
able to control for other factors that may have
changed at the same time the family’s status
changed.21 Another frequently used method
is comparing outcomes for the same child at
different points in time, when family circumstances have changed. But this method too
derives its findings from families experiencing change and is unable to control for other
factors that may have changed at the same
time the family’s status changed. Another way
to address selection is instrumental variables
(IV) estimation. This estimation strategy uses
variation in family structure that is predicted
by a variable that is external to the family,
that influences family structure, and that is
not otherwise associated with child outcomes
(for example, state laws or tax policies). In
theory, this method is well suited to address
selection, but in practice, it can be difficult to
identify such an external variable.22
The Role of Family Stability
A further challenge in identifying exactly
how family structure shapes child well-being
is the difficulty of distinguishing the effects
of family structure from the effects of family
stability. Family stability refers to whether
children grow up with the same parent(s) that
were present at their birth. The assumption is
that children will do better, on average, with
stable parents because change can be disruptive to children and families and also because
new partners coming into the household
may be not as good caretakers as parents
who have been with the children since birth.
Poor outcomes related to instability may be
explained by the stress that accompanies
changes in family structure for both parent
and child; moreover, changing family circumstances may confound the status quo of
authority within the household.23
Particularly in earlier research on family
structure, the vast majority of nontraditional
families had been formed through divorce,
and thus family structure was typically conflated with family stability or instability. To
the extent that stability matters for child wellbeing, the effects of family structure on child
outcomes might be due, at least in part, to its
association with stability.24
Single-parent and cohabiting-couple families
are both more susceptible to family instability
than are traditional married-couple families.
Studies have shown that family structure at
birth is highly predictive of family instability,
affirming that cohabiting couples experience
the most instability, followed by single-parent
families, and then traditional two-parent
families.25 However, it remains challenging to
determine the importance of family stability
relative to family structure. As we discuss
below, one recent study found that family
stability trumps family structure as it pertains
to early cognitive development even after
controlling for economic and parental
resources.26 It has been shown that children
living in stable single-parent families (that is,
families that were headed by a single parent
throughout childhood) do better than those
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Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
living in unstable two-parent families (that is,
families that had two parents present initially
but then experienced a change in family
structure).27 Another study finds that children
living in stable cohabiting homes (that is,
families where two parents cohabit throughout the child’s life) do just as well as children
living with cohabiting parents who eventually
marry.28 But other research challenges the
conclusion that it is family stability that is
crucial for child well-being. One study, for
instance, found that children who experience
two or more family transitions do not have
worse behavioral problems or cognitive test
scores than children who experience only one
or no family transitions. The same study
found that children living in stable singleparent homes had the worst behavioral and
cognitive outcomes.29
of nontraditional families—including both
divorced families and unwed-mother families
—affected child well-being. Even after
controlling for the selection of different types
of individuals into different types of family
structure, the authors concluded that children
who spent time in divorced- or unwed-mother
households fared considerably worse than
those remaining in intact two-parent families
throughout their childhood and adolescence.
While they were still in high school, they had
lower test scores, college expectations, gradepoint averages, and school attendance, and as
they made the transition to young adulthood,
they were less likely to graduate from high
school and college, more likely to become
teen mothers, and somewhat more likely to
be “idle” (a term that refers to those who are
disengaged from both school and work).
The effects of family structure as distinct
from instability have been the focus of much
of the recent research in this area. We provide a review of the most recent studies, and
also offer some evidence from our own new
analyses below.
In addition, although the differences were
not large (and not always statistically significant), children of unwed parents tended to
fare worse than those with divorced parents,
even after taking into account differences
in basic demographic characteristics such
as race, sex, mother’s and father’s education, number of siblings, and residence. For
example, although the risk of dropping out
of high school was 31 percent for children
whose parents had divorced, it was 37 percent for children whose parents were unwed;
similarly, although the risk of a teen birth for
children whose parents had divorced was 33
percent, it was 37 percent for children whose
parents were unwed.30
Past Research on the Links
between Family Structure and
Child Outcomes
An extensive body of work has examined the
effects of parental divorce on child outcomes.
As noted, however, most of this work was
published before the massive increase in
unwed parenthood that now characterizes
American families. Thus, informative as it was
about the effects of divorce, this early wave of
research lacked data to explain how unwed
parenthood might affect child outcomes.
The classic study by Sara McLanahan and
Gary Sandefur, published in 1994, bridged
the gap by bringing together an array of
evidence on how growing up in various types
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T H E F U T U R E O F C H ILDREN
With regard to mechanisms, McLanahan and
Sandefur found that income was an important
explanatory factor for the poorer outcomes
of children in single-parent families (but
not for children in stepparent families). On
average, single-parent families had only
half the income of two-parent families, and
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
Although an earlier
generation of researchers
had debated whether or not
divorce affected children’s
well-being, McLanahan and
Sandefur’s findings left little
doubt that children of unwed
parents were worse off than
other groups.
this difference accounted for about half
the gap between the two sets of children
in high school dropout and nonmarital
teen birth rates (in regression models that
also controlled for race, sex, mother’s and
father’s education, number of siblings, and
residence).31 The other important mechanism was parenting. When McLanahan and
Sandefur entered parenting into the regressions (instead of income), they found that
the poorer parenting skills and behaviors
in single-parent families explained about
half the gap in high school dropout rates,
but only a fifth of the gap in teen birth rates
(again controlling for race, sex, mother’s
and father’s education, number of siblings,
and residence). Because the authors did not
control for income and parenting in the same
models, the question of how much overlap
there was in their effects remains.
Although child health was not a focus in the
McLanahan and Sandefur analysis, other
analysts have consistently found effects of
family structure on children’s health outcomes.32 Janet Currie and Joseph Hotz found
that children of single mothers are at higher
risk of accidents than children of married
mothers, even after controlling for a host of
other demographic characteristics.33 Anne
Case and Christina Paxson showed that
children living with stepmothers receive less
optimal care and have worse health outcomes
than otherwise similar children living with
their biological mothers (whether married
or single).34 An extensive body of research
also links single-parent and cohabiting-family
structures with higher risk of child abuse and
neglect.35
As McLanahan and Sandefur noted at the
time, their findings were worrisome given the
burgeoning growth in unwed parenthood in
the United States at the time. Although an
earlier generation of researchers had debated
whether or not divorce affected children’s
well-being, McLanahan and Sandefur’s findings left little doubt that children of unwed
parents were worse off than other groups.
Concern about how children would fare in
unwed families ultimately led to the Fragile
Families and Child Wellbeing Study.36
The Fragile Families and Child
Wellbeing Study
The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
Study is a new data set that follows a cohort
of approximately 5,000 children born
between 1998 and 2000 in medium to large
U.S. cities.37
Approximately 3,700 of the children were
born to unmarried mothers and 1,200 to married mothers.38 The study initiated interviews
with parents at a time when both were in the
hospital for the birth of their child and therefore available for interviews.39 As a consequence, FFCWS is able to comprehensively
detail the characteristics of both parents and
the nature of their relationship at the time of
the child’s birth.
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Table 1. Summary of Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Findings on Various Child Outcomes
Positive effect
of traditional
two-parent
family
Negative
effect of
nontraditional
families
Author
Outcomes
Addresses
selection
Berger, Paxson, and Waldfogel (2009)
Child abuse
Yes
Bzostek (2008)
Behavior problems and
health
Bzostek and Beck (2008)
Obesity/asthma/health
Cooper and others (2008)
PPVT-R/behavior problems
Craigie (2008)
PPVT-R
Fomby and Osborne (2008)
Behavior problems
Guterman and others (2009)
Child abuse
Harknett (2005)
Asthma
Liu and Heiland (2007)
Asthma
Yes
Liu and Heiland (2008)
PPVT-R/asthma/behavior
problems
Yes
Yes
Osborne and others (2004)
Behavior problems
Yes
Yes
Yes
Osborne (2007)
Behavior problems
Yes
Yes
Osborne and McLanahan (2007)
Behavior problems
Padilla and Reichman (2001)
Low birth weight
The study also contains extensive information on early child developmental and health
outcomes. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary
Test–Revised (PPVT-R) is administered to
children aged three or older as a measure
of their receptive vocabulary capabilities for
Standard English as well as their academic
readiness.40 The Woodcock-Johnson Tests
of Achievement Letter-Word Identification
subtest, another measure of cognitive development, is administered at the age-five
assessment. At the same time, interviewers
assess children’s sustained attention, a key
skill that has been linked to school readiness and success in school, using the Leiter
International Performance Scale-Revised.
Interviewers gather data on children’s
behavior problems by asking mothers questions from the Child Behavior Checklist
about both externalizing and internalizing
behaviors—that is, both outward displays of
emotion, including violence and aggression,
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T H E F U T U R E O F C H ILDREN
Negative
effect of family
instability
Yes
No (positive)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Mixed
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
and introverted behavioral tendencies,
including anxiety, withdrawal, and depression. The study assesses prosocial behavior
(which includes the child’s ability to get along
in social situations with adults and peers)
by asking the mother questions using the
Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory.
Finally, FFCWS includes several measures
of child health. The initial survey records
whether a child had a low birth weight. In
addition, at the age-three and age-five inhome assessment, the interviewer records
physical measurements of the child’s height
and weight to make it possible to calculate
the child’s BMI and to determine whether
the child is overweight or obese. At the same
interviews, the mother is asked about four
other health outcomes: whether the child has
ever been diagnosed with asthma; the child’s
overall health, from the mother’s perspective;
whether the child was hospitalized in the past
year; and whether the child had any accidents
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
or injuries in the past year. The study also
includes fairly extensive information on child
abuse and neglect, which captures another
aspect of child health and well-being. The
primary caregiver’s use of discipline strategies
is measured by the Conflicts Tactics Scale
(including the child neglect supplement).
Parents are also asked whether their family
has ever been reported to child protective
services for child abuse or neglect.
Studies using data from FFCWS have found
that in general, children in traditional marriedcouple families fare better than children
living in single-mother or cohabiting families.
We summarize separately below the evidence
on cognitive development, child behavior,
and child health (see table 1 for details).
Fragile Families and Child
Cognitive Development
Several FFCWS studies have specifically
focused on the effects of family structure on
children’s cognitive development and also
confirmed the importance of stability as an
explanatory factor. Shirley Liu and Frank
Heiland find that among couples unmarried at the time of the child’s birth, marriage
improved cognitive scores for children whose
parents later married.41 Terry-Ann Craigie
distinguishes among stable cohabiting unions,
stable single-mother homes, and stable
married-couple families, as well as unstable
cohabiting families and unstable marriedcouple families. She finds no difference in
children’s vocabulary scores at age three
between stable two-parent families (whether
cohabiting or married) and stable singlemother families, but she finds that scores are
lower in unstable families (whether cohabiting or married) than in stable families.42
Carey Cooper and co-authors also highlight
the role that partnership instability plays in
the link between family structure and child
cognitive development, although these links
are much weaker than those they find for
behavioral development (discussed below).43
Fragile Families and Child
Behavior Problems
Several studies using FFCWS data confirm
that child behavior problems are elevated
in both single-parent and cohabiting families. Cynthia Osborne and her co-authors,
for instance, found that children living with
cohabiting parents have more externalizing
and internalizing behavioral problems than
children living with married parents, even at
age three. One explanation may be the preexisting risks that accompany nontraditional
families.44 In addition, research by Rebecca
Ryan, Ariel Kalil, and Lindsey Leininger
suggests that resources are one mechanism
underlying these links: when single mothers
have more material and instrumental support, children have fewer behavior problems
and more prosocial behavior.45 Relationship
quality may also play a role. Several FFCWS
studies offer evidence that poorer relationship quality is linked with less parental
engagement with children. Paula Fomby
and Cynthia Osborne find that relationship
conflict exacerbates externalized behavioral
problems in children regardless of past family
structure transitions.46
The deleterious effects of family instability on behavior problems are also highlighted in the FFCWS studies. Osborne and
McLanahan show that behavioral problems
are intensified with each additional change
in family structure the child experiences
(changing from single to cohabiting parent,
or cohabiting to single, for example), with
this association mediated at least in part by
differences in maternal stress and parenting quality.47 Cooper and co-authors also
find a link between instability and behavior
VOL. 20 / NO. 2 / FALL 2010
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Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
problems, with children who experience
instability in the people with whom they
live going on to display more externalizing,
attention, and social problems, and again find
that these effects are mediated, at least in
part, by mothers’ problematic mental health
and harsh parenting.48 Audrey Beck and her
co-authors’ analyses of both cohabiting and
dating mothers confirm that mothers experiencing instability in their relationships go
on to report more stress and to engage in
harsher parenting.49
It appears, however, that there is an important interaction between family structure and
stability. Several studies find that behavior
problems are more serious in both stable
single-mother families and unstable cohabiting families than in stable married-couple
families.50 In contrast, children living with
stable cohabiting-couple families do not display more behavior problems than children
living with stable married-couple families.
Thus, stability seems to matter in cohabiting families, but not in single-mother families, where the risk of behavior problems is
elevated even if that family structure is stable.
Osborne and McLanahan find that about half
the association between family structure and
behavior problems is attributable to mothers’
higher levels of stress and poorer parenting skills and behaviors. In a study of father
involvement, Sharon Bzostek shows that having a social father involved in a child’s life can
lower behavioral problems just as having an
involved biological father can.51
Some studies find no evidence that family
structure affects child behavioral problems.
An analysis by Liu and Heiland indicates that
marriage up to three years after a child’s birth
does not significantly improve behavioral
problems.52
98
T H E F U T U R E O F C H ILDREN
Fragile Families and Child Health
In a comprehensive analysis of the effects
of nontraditional family structure on child
health using data from FFCWS, Bzostek
and Beck consider five health outcomes:
whether the child is overweight or obese,
whether the child has ever been diagnosed
with asthma, the mother’s overall assessment
of the child’s health, whether the child was
hospitalized in the past year, and whether
the child had any accidents or injuries over
the past year.53 Overall, they find, consistent
with earlier research, that children born to
unwed mothers have worse health across a
range of outcomes, even after controlling for
other differences in characteristics such as
maternal age, race and ethnicity, and education. Children living with single mothers have
worse outcomes on all five health measures
than children living with married parents,
while children in cohabiting-couple families
tend to have worse outcomes on some but
not all measures. The authors also consider
the effect of instability. In contrast to some
past research, they find that instability for the
most part does not affect children’s health
outcomes (the exception is hospitalizations,
where they find, unexpectedly, that children
who experienced more instability are less
likely to have been hospitalized).54 These
findings suggest that what negatively affects
health among children in fragile families has
to do with living with single or cohabiting
parents (rather than experiencing changes in
family structure).
Bzostek and Beck also consider several mechanisms that might account for the links between
family structure and child health. Although
no single factor is strongly linked with all the
health outcomes, together the intervening
variables (or mediators) they examine do help
explain some of the differences in health outcomes across family structure type. However,
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
Bzostek and Beck find evidence that at least
a portion of the family structure effects they
estimate likely reflects selection. Their models
examining the effect of changes in family
structure on changes in outcomes for a child
over time suggest weaker effects on child
health than do their snapshot-in-time crosssectional models.55
Studies have consistently found that children
born to unwed parents are at higher risk of
low birth weight, and analyses from FFCWS
confirm this finding.56 Further, FFCWS
analyses by Nancy Reichman and her coauthors suggest some of the mechanisms that
link unwed parenthood with greater risk of
low birth weight. They find that women who
are not married at the time of the birth are
more likely to smoke cigarettes and use illicit
drugs during pregnancy, and less likely to
receive prenatal care in the first trimester of
their pregnancy, all of which are associated
with low birth weight (use of illicit drugs is
also associated with other infant health problems).57 Yolanda Padilla and Reichman find
that unwed mothers who received support
from the baby’s father are less likely to have
a low-birth-weight baby, as are those who
cohabited with the father.58
Studies based on FFCWS also confirm
earlier research finding that children living
with single mothers are at higher risk of
asthma. For instance, Kristen Harknett finds
that the likelihood that children have been
diagnosed with asthma by age fifteen months
is highest for children with single mothers,
next highest for those with cohabiting
mothers, and lowest for those with married
mothers. Although differences in characteristics account for the gap between married and
cohabiting families, they do not fully account
for why children with single mothers are
more likely to have been diagnosed with
asthma.59 Liu and Heiland, following children
to age three, find that children whose parents
had been cohabiting but then separated have
a higher risk of asthma than otherwise
comparable children whose parents remained
together.60
A few studies have taken advantage of the
data in FFCWS to examine the effects of
family structure on child abuse and neglect.
Neil Guterman and his co-authors look at
whether mothers are less likely to be physically aggressive or punitive with their children if they are in a married household and
find that, although marriage appears to be
protective in the raw data, that effect disappears in models that control for parental and
family characteristics.61 Lawrence Berger and
his co-authors examine the effect of family structure on whether a family has been
reported to child protective services for abuse
or neglect and find that both single-mother
families and cohabiting families where the
mother is living with a man who is not the
biological father of all her children are at
higher risk of having been reported than are
families where the mother is living with the
biological father of all her children.62 This
latter finding is robust to extensive controls
for factors associated with selection into different family types, leading the authors to
conclude that the presence of a social father
in the home is associated with increased risk
of abuse or neglect.63
Our Own Analyses of FFCWS
The many studies in this area, including
the recent ones using FFCWS data, do not
always define family structure or stability in a
consistent way. Studies also vary in the extensiveness of other controls that are included in
the analyses. These differences across studies
can make it difficult to generalize across studies and to summarize their results.
VOL. 20 / NO. 2 / FALL 2010
99
Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
Figure 1. Variation in Predicted Values for Scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Revised,
by Family Type
120
Predicted values for PPVT-R scores
No controls (model 1)
Adds demographic
controls (model 2)
110
Adds potential
mediators (model 3)
100
** *
**
90
**
*****
****
Stable
cohabiting
Unstable
cohabiting
**
**
**
*
80
70
Stable
married
Unstable
married
Cohabiting
to married
Stable
single
Unstable
single
* p<0.05, ** p<0.01
Asterisks indicate that each group is statistically significantly different from the stable married group (the reference category).
Accordingly, we carried out our own analyses
of FFCWS data, estimating the effect of a
consistently defined set of family structure
and stability categories on a set of child
cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes
at age five. The family categories we defined
account for both family structure at birth and
stability since birth. We divide families into
the following six categories: stable cohabitation, stable single, cohabitation to marriage,
married at birth (unstable), cohabiting at
birth (unstable), and single at birth (unstable). We then contrast them with the traditional family reference group (that is, families
in which parents were married at the child’s
birth and have remained so).
We estimate three sets of regression models.
In model 1, we control only for the family
structure and stability categories; thus, these
results tell us the association between family
type and child outcomes without controlling
for any of the differences in other characteristics between families. Model 2 adds controls for a commonly used set of demographic
100
T H E F U T U R E O F C HILDREN
characteristics—the child’s gender, mother
and father’s race and ethnicity, mother and
father’s education, and mother and father’s
age. Thus the results from model 2 regressions tell us the effect of family structure and
stability holding constant these demographic
differences. Model 3 further adds controls for
possible mediating variables that might help
explain the links between family structure
and stability and child outcomes. We do not
have controls for all the possible mediators of
interest but we do include here controls for
several important ones—mother’s income,
father involvement, parenting quality, and
maternal and paternal depression. Thus, the
results for model 3 tell us whether and how
much family structure and stability matter for child well-being after controlling for
demographic differences and these possible
mediators.
We estimated these models for two cognitive
outcomes, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary
Test–Revised (PPVT–R) and WoodcockJohnson test; two behavioral outcomes: the
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
Figure 2. Variation in Predicted Values for Aggression, by Family Type
14
Predicted values for aggression
No controls (model 1)
12
10
*
**
*
Cohabiting
to married
Stable
cohabiting
** *
****
*****
Adds demographic controls
(model 2)
Adds potential mediators
(model 3)
8
6
4
2
0
Stable
married
Unstable
married
Unstable
cohabiting
Stable
single
Unstable
single
* p<0.05, ** p<0.01
Asterisks indicate that each group is statistically significantly different from the stable married group (the reference category).
child’s score on a measure of aggressive
behavior and the child’s score on a measure
of anxiety and depression; and two health
outcomes: obesity and asthma. Details on
all the outcome variables are provided in
Appendix 1; means for all the variables in our
models are listed in Appendix 2.
We show selected results in figures 1 through
3.64 In these figures, we show how children’s
predicted scores on the outcome measures
vary as a function of their family type. Figure
1 displays results for the PPVT–R. In model
1, all types of nontraditional or unstable families are associated with lower scores. Results
for model 2 are similar, with the exception of
the cohabitation to marriage category, which
is now no longer significantly different from
the stable married category. In model 3, the
possible mediators explain some, but not all,
of these negative effects.
The findings for aggressive behavior are
shown in figure 2. In model 1, just as with
the results for cognitive outcomes, all types
of nontraditional or unstable families are
associated with worse scores (in this case,
because the outcome variables are ratings of
behavior problems, higher scores indicate
worse outcomes). However, in contrast to the
results for cognitive outcomes, it appears that
for aggressive behavioral problems, growing
up with a single mother (stable or unstable)
is worse than growing up with a cohabiting
mother. The effects of growing up with a
single mother are larger in model 1 and are
more likely to remain significant after controlling for demographic differences (model
2) or demographic differences plus possible
mediators (model 3).
Results for the health outcomes reveal a
different pattern. Figure 3 shows that for
obesity, the worst outcomes, across all three
models, are associated with growing up with a
single parent (whether stable or unstable) or
an unstable cohabiting parent. This pattern
is true as well for asthma,65 although after
controlling for demographic differences (or
demographic differences plus the possible
VOL. 20 / NO. 2 / FALL 2010
101
Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
Figure 3. Variation in Predicted Values for Obesity, by Family Type
Predicted values for obesity
.25
**
****
.20
No controls (model 1)
**
**
**
**
.15
**
Adds demographic
controls (model 2)
Adds potential
mediators (model 3)
****
**
.10
.05
0
Stable
married
Unstable
married
Cohabiting
to married
Stable
cohabiting
Unstable
cohabiting
Stable
single
Unstable
single
* p<0.05, ** p<0.01
Asterisks indicate that each group is statistically significantly different from the stable married group (the reference category).
mediators), instability appears to be most
important (with the worst outcomes found
for children of unstable single or unstable
cohabiting mothers).
These results suggest that the relative importance of family structure versus family instability matters differently for behavior problems
than it does for cognitive or health outcomes.
That is, instability seems to matter more
than family structure for cognitive and health
outcomes, whereas growing up with a single
mother (whether that family structure is stable
or unstable over time) seems to matter more
than instability for behavior problems.
Summary and Conclusions
In this article we summarize the findings
from prior research, as well as our own new
analyses, that address the question of how
well children in fragile families fare compared with those living in traditional marriedparent families, as well as what mechanisms
might explain any differences. We pay
particular attention to studies that use the
102
T H E F U T U R E O F C HILDREN
data from FFCWS to examine the effects of
family structure in early childhood.
The FFCWS studies add to a large body of
earlier work that suggested that children
who live with single or cohabiting parents
fare worse as adolescents and young adults
in terms of their educational outcomes,
risk of teen birth, and attachment to school
and the labor market than do children who
grow up in married-couple families. Until
recently, most of this research focused on
divorced parents. The sharp rise over the
past few decades in births to unwed mothers,
however, has shifted the focus to unmarried
single and cohabiting parents. These demographic changes make it difficult to compare
research done even ten or fifteen years ago
with research on cohorts from the beginning
of this century. Rapid changes in the characteristics of parents over time also could result
in different selection biases in terms of which
parents (both mothers and fathers) have
children when married or when unmarried
(for example, as the pool of parents having
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
unwed births grows, the characteristics of
unwed parents may become more similar to
those of married parents, which would result
in smaller estimated associations between
fragile families and child outcomes). And
given that recent cohorts of children born to
single and cohabiting parents are relatively
young, an additional complication involves
comparing outcomes across studies (that is,
analysts cannot yet estimate effects of family
structure on adolescent and adult outcomes
for cohorts such as FFCWS). Therefore,
although growing up with single or cohabiting parents rather than with married parents
is linked with less desirable outcomes for
children and youth, comparisons of the size
of such effects, across outcomes, ages, and
cohorts, is not possible. In addition, analysts
have used vastly different controls to estimate
family structure effects, again complicating
the quest for integration across studies. We
addressed this latter problem by carrying out
our own analyses using a consistent set of
controls across outcomes.
Current and past research points to several
mechanisms that likely underlie the links
between family structure and child wellbeing, including: parental resources, parents’
relationship quality, parents’ mental health,
parenting quality, and father involvement.
The selection of different types of men and
women into these family types also likely plays
a role. Currently, researchers are examining
the role of family instability as well as family
structure, allowing in some cases for estimates
of the influence of both on children.
As noted, past research focused mainly
on children whose parents were married
when they were born but then separated or
divorced (and subsequently lived on their
own or remarried). Today, an increasing share
of American children is being born to unwed
mothers and thus the children are spending
the early years of their lives in fragile families, with either a single mother or a cohabiting mother.
That worrisome change informed the launch
of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
Study a decade ago. Today FFCWS provides
a wealth of policy-relevant data on the characteristics and nature of relationships among
unwed parents. It also provides extensive
data on early child health and development, currently available through age five.
A new wave of studies from FFCWS data
has enriched understanding of how unwed
parenthood affects child well-being.
Studies using the FFCWS data have shed
new light on how family structure affects
child well-being in early childhood. The findings to date confirm some of the findings in
earlier research, but also provide some new
insights. In terms of child cognitive development, the FFCWS studies are consistent
with past research in suggesting that children
in fragile families are likely at risk of poorer
school achievement. Of particular interest are
analyses suggesting that some of these effects
may be due to family instability as much as,
or more than, family structure. That is, some
studies find that being raised by stable single
or cohabiting parents seems to entail less
risk than being raised by single or cohabiting
parents when these family types are unstable.
Because findings are just emerging, the relative risks of unmarried status and turnover in
couple relationships cannot be specified yet.
Nor do researchers yet know the mechanisms
through which family structure and instability
influence children or whether the intervening
mechanisms are similar or different.
With regard to child behavior problems,
evidence is consistent that children in fragile
VOL. 20 / NO. 2 / FALL 2010
103
Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
families are at risk for poorer social and emotional development starting in early childhood. In contrast to the results for cognitive
outcomes, it appears that behavioral development is compromised in stable single-mother
families, but, in common with the results
for cognitive outcomes, such problems are
aggravated by family instability for children
in cohabiting families. The research also
sheds a good deal of light on mechanisms,
such as maternal stress and mental health
as well as parenting, that might help explain
why behavior problems are more prevalent in
fragile families.
FFCWS is also providing some new insights
on the effects of family structure on child
health. Across a range of outcomes, findings suggest that children of single mothers
are at elevated risk of poor health; evidence
of health risks associated with living with
cohabiting parents is less consistent. Findings
for child abuse and neglect are also intriguing
and suggest that children of single mothers
and cohabiting mothers are at elevated risk
of maltreatment, although marital status per
se may be less consequential than whether a
man who is not the child’s biological father is
present in the home.
These findings clearly are cause for concern. Although the children in FFCWS are
still quite young, these early gaps in child
104
T H E F U T U R E O F C HILDREN
cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes
do not bode well for these children’s long-run
prospects.66 As the children in this cohort
age, researchers will be able to study how
growing up in fragile families is affecting
well-being in middle childhood and adolescence for children who began life with unwed
parents. Particularly important in this regard
will be studies that take into account the
mechanisms we discuss in this article as well
as the role of selection and instability.
To the extent that children in fragile families
do have poorer outcomes than children born
into and growing up in more stable twoparent married-couple families, what are the
policy implications? In principle, the findings summarized here point to three routes
by which outcomes for children might be
improved. The first is to reduce the share of
children growing up in fragile families (for
example, through policies that reduce the
rate of unwed births or that promote family
stability among unwed parents). The second
is to address the mediating factors that place
such children at risk (for example, through
policies that boost resources in single-parent
homes or that foster father involvement
in fragile families). The third is to address
directly the risks these children face (for
example, through high-quality early childhood education policies or home-visiting
policies).
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
Appendices
Appendix 1. Dependent Variables
Measures of Child Cognitive Ability
1. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Revised
(Standardized)
2. Woodcock-Johnson Letter-Word
Recognition Test
Measures of Child Behavioral Problems
1. Aggressive Behavior: selected items from
the Child Behavior Checklist (20 items)
[see page 49 of Five-Year In-Home
Longitudinal Study of Pre-School Aged
Children User’s Guide1]
2. Anxiety/Depression: selected items from
the Child Behavior Checklist (14 items)
[see page 50 of Five-Year In-Home
Longitudinal Study of Pre-School Aged
Children User’s Guide2]
Potential Mediators
• Income: Fifth-year household income
(in tens of thousands)
• Father’s Involvement: “During the last 30
days, on how many days has father seen
child?”
• Parenting Quality: “Mother’s Aggravation
in Parenting” [see Scales Documentation
and Question Sources for Five-Year
Questionnaires (page 16)3]
• Depression: “Constructed—Parent meets
depression criteria (liberal) at five-year
(Composite International Diagnostic
Interview)”
Measures of Child Health
1. Obesity [Five-Year In-Home Longitudinal
Study of Pre-School Aged Children]:
BMI equal to or greater than the 95th
percentile
2. Asthma: “During past 12 months, has
child had episode of asthma or an asthma
attack?” [Mother’s Fifth-Year Interview]
1. See www.fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/
documentation.asp.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
VOL. 20 / NO. 2 / FALL 2010
105
Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
Appendix 2. Means of Independent Variables, by Family Structure/Stability Group
General
Stable
married
Stable
cohabiting
Stable
single
Cohabiting
to married
Unstable
married
Unstable
cohabiting
Unstable
single
N=4,032
N=733
N=265
N=571
N=281
N=269
N=900
N=1,013
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
Male
0.53
0.54
0.51
0.54
0.51
0.48
0.50
0.55
Mother white
0.21
0.49
0.17
0.10
0.27
0.28
0.15
0.11
Mother black
0.49
0.21
0.40
0.69
0.30
0.35
0.53
0.64
Mother Hispanic
0.27
0.22
0.42
0.19
0.40
0.32
0.30
0.22
Other
0.04
0.07
0.02
0.02
0.03
0.06
0.03
0.03
Father of different race
0.12
0.09
0.11
0.12
0.14
0.14
0.13
0.13
Mother is high school dropout
0.38
0.15
0.46
0.40
0.35
0.25
0.48
0.48
Mother has high school diploma
0.26
0.15
0.31
0.30
0.29
0.25
0.27
0.28
Mother has some college
0.25
0.27
0.22
0.26
0.31
0.31
0.23
0.22
Mother has college degree
0.11
0.42
0.02
0.03
0.05
0.20
0.02
0.02
Father has same education
0.52
0.60
0.55
0.50
0.50
0.51
0.50
0.49
Father has less education
0.23
0.22
0.20
0.24
0.24
0.32
0.21
0.23
Father has more education
0.25
0.18
0.25
0.26
0.26
0.16
0.28
0.28
Mother’s age
30.29
35.05
29.85
29.73
29.53
32.74
29.04
27.95
Father’s age
32.89
37.26
32.83
32.71
32.43
35.42
31.51
30.50
Independent variable
Mother’s income (in 10,000)
3.79
7.89
3.33
2.09
4.48
4.45
2.60
2.60
17.18
29.89
30.00
5.24
29.79
14.72
12.16
12.92
Parenting quality
2.82
2.87
2.87
2.75
2.90
2.90
2.80
2.79
Mother depressed
0.16
0.11
0.09
0.17
0.19
0.22
0.20
0.17
Father depressed
0.08
0.05
0.09
0.07
0.06
0.12
0.11
0.08
Father involvement
Data: Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.
106
T H E F U T U R E O F C HILDREN
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
Endnotes
1. It is important to note that both types of families may spend at least some time as part of larger households
that include other family members or friends.
2. Stephanie Ventura, “Changing Patterns of Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States,” NCHS Data
Brief 18 (Hyattsville, Md.: National Center for Health Statistics, 2009) (www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/
db18.htm [accessed October 2, 2009]). The share of children born to unwed parents is considerably higher
among African Americans, and somewhat higher among Hispanics, than for non-Hispanic whites; see
Robert A. Hummer and Erin R. Hamilton, “Race and Ethnicity in Fragile Families,” in this volume.
3. See Sara McLanahan and Audrey Beck, “Parental Relationships in Fragile Families,” in this volume.
4. Wendy Sigle-Rushton and Sara McLanahan, “Father Absence and Child Well-Being: A Critical Review,”
Working Paper 02-20-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, October 2002); Sara
McLanahan and Gary Sandefur, Growing Up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps? (Harvard
University Press, 1994); Sara McLanahan and others, “Unwed Fathers and Fragile Families,” Working
Paper 98-12-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, March 1998).
5. See review in Paul Amato, “The Impact of Family Formation Change on the Well-Being of the Next
Generation,” Future of Children 15, no. 2 (2005): 75–96. Amato also provides a useful overview of mechanisms that might account for the benefits associated with marriage.
6. See Adam Thomas and Isabel Sawhill, “For Love and Money? The Impact of Family Structure on Family
Income,” Future of Children 15, no. 2 (2005): 57–74. For evidence from FFCWS, see Sara McLanahan,
Jean Knab, and Sara Meadows, “Economic Trajectories in Non-Traditional Families with Children,”
Working Paper 09-10-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, September 2009).
7. Susan L. Brown, “Family Structure and Child Well-Being: The Significance of Parental Cohabitation,”
Journal of Marriage and Family 66 (2004): 351–67; Deborah R. Graefe and Daniel T. Lichter, “Life Course
Transitions of American Children: Parental Cohabitation, Marriage, and Single Motherhood,” Demography
36 (1999): 205–17.
8. McLanahan and Sandefur, Growing Up with a Single Parent (see note 4).
9. Steven Friedlander, Daniel S. Weiss, and John Traylor, “Assessing the Influence of Maternal Depression on
the Validity of the Child Behavior Checklist,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology 14 (1986): 123–33; Cynthia
Osborne, Sara McLanahan, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, “Young Children’s Behavioral Problems in Married
and Cohabiting Families,” Working Paper 03-09-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing,
September 2004).
10 Brown, “Family Structure and Child Well-Being” (see note 7).
11. Analyses from FFCWS suggest that exits from cohabitation or marriage between the year-one and yearthree interviews are associated with deteriorating mental health for men, but not for women, whose mental
health seems to be less sensitive to family structure changes (except that women who exit from cohabitation do have larger increases in anxiety than other groups). See Claire Kamp Dush and Kate Adkins, “The
Mental Health of Mothers and Fathers before and after Cohabitation and Marital Dissolution,” Working
Paper 09-03-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, January 2009).
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12. E. Mark Cummings and Patrick T. Davies, “Effects of Marital Conflict on Children: Recent Advances
and Emerging Themes in Process-Oriented Research,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 43
(2002): 31–63; James L. Peterson and Nicholas Zill, “Marital Disruption, Parent-Child Relationship, and
Behavioral Problems in Children,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 48 (1986): 295–307; Osborne,
McLanahan, and Brooks-Gunn, “Young Children’s Behavioral Problems in Married and Cohabiting
Families” (see note 9).
13. McLanahan and Sandefur, Growing Up with a Single Parent (see note 4).
14. See discussion in Marcy Carlson and others, “Couples as Partners and Parents over Children’s Early Years,”
Working Paper 09-12-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, September 2009).
15. Osborne, McLanahan, and Brooks-Gunn, “Young Children’s Behavioral Problems” (see note 9); Susan
Brown and Alan Booth, “Cohabitation versus Marriage: A Comparison of Relationship Quality,” Journal of
Marriage and Family 58 (1996): 668–78.
16. Marcy Carlson and Frank Furstenberg, “The Consequences of Multi-Partnered Fertility for Parental
Involvement and Relationships,” Working Paper 06-28-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child
Wellbeing, May 2007).
17. Marcia Carlson and Sara McLanahan, “Fathers in Fragile Families,” Working Paper 09-14-FF (Princeton:
Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, 2009). Forthcoming in Michael E. Lamb, ed.,The Role of the
Father in Child Development, fifth edition (New York: Wiley and Sons).
18. Sharon Bzostek, “Social Fathers and Child Wellbeing,” Journal of Marriage and Family 70, no. 4 (2008):
950–61; Maureen Black, Howard Dubowitz, and Raymond Starr Jr., “African American Fathers in LowIncome, Urban Families: Development, Behavior, and Home Environment of Their Three Year Old
Children,” Child Development 70, no. 4 (1999): 967–78. See also review by Carlson and McLanahan
(note 17).
19. Black, Dubowitz, and Starr, “African American Fathers in Low-Income, Urban Families” (see note 18). See
also review by Carlson and McLanahan (note 17).
20. Frank Heiland and Shirley H. Liu, “Family Structure and Wellbeing of Out-of-Wedlock Children: the
Significance of the Biological Parents’ Relationship,” Demographic Research 15 (2005): 61–104.
21. See, for example, Eirik Evenhouse and Siobhan Reilly, “A Sibling Study of Stepchild Well-Being,” Journal
of Human Resources 39, no. 1 (2004): 248–76; Sigle-Rushton and McLanahan, “Father Absence and Child
Well-Being” (see note 4); Gary Sandefur and Thomas Wells, “Using Siblings to Investigate the Effects of
Family Structure on Educational Attainment,” Discussion paper 1144-97 (Madison, Wis.: Institute for
Research on Poverty, 1997); Lawrence L. Wu, “Effects of Family Instability, Income and Income Instability
on the Risk of a Premarital Birth,” American Sociological Review 61 (1996): 386–406.
22. For instance, some studies have used as an instrument an indicator for the gender of the oldest child,
on the grounds that a family is more likely to stay intact if the oldest child is a boy. See Kelly Bedard and
Olivier Deschenes, “Sex Preferences, Marital Dissolution, and the Economic Status of Women,” Journal
of Human Resources 40, no. 2 (2005): 411–34; and Elizabeth O. Ananat and Guy Michaels, “The Effect of
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Marital Breakup on the Income Distribution of Women with Children,” Journal of Human Resources 43,
no. 3 (2008): 611–29.
23. See, for example, Paula Fomby and Andrew J. Cherlin, “Family Instability and Child Wellbeing,” American
Sociological Review 72 (April 2007): 181–204; Cynthia Osborne and Sara McLanahan, “Partnership
Instability and Child Well-Being,” Journal of Marriage and Family 69 (November 2007): 1065–83.
24. Shannon Cavanagh and Aletha C. Huston, “Family Instability and Children’s Early Problem Behavior,”
Social Forces 85, no. 1 (2006): 551–81; Cynthia Osborne, Wendy D. Manning, and Pamela J. Smock,
“Married and Cohabiting Parents’ Relationship Instability: A Focus on Race and Ethnicity,” Journal of
Marriage and Family 69, no. 5 (2007): 1345–66; Osborne and McLanahan, “Partnership Instability and
Child Well-Being” (see note 23).
25. Terry-Ann Craigie, “Effects of Paternal Presence and Family Instability on Child Cognitive Performance,”
Working Paper 08-03-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, November 2008).
26. Cavanagh and Huston, “Family Instability and Children’s Early Problem Behavior” (see note 24); Fomby
and Cherlin, “Family Instability and Child Wellbeing” (see note 23).
27. Heiland and Liu, “Family Structure and Wellbeing of Out-of-Wedlock Children” (see note 20).
28. Marcy J. Carlson and Mary Corcoran, “Family Structure and Children’s Behavioral and Cognitive
Outcomes,” Journal of Marriage and Family 63 (2001): 779–92.
29. Cynthia Osborne, “Maternal Stress and Mothering Behaviors in Stable and Unstable Families,” Working
Paper 03-08-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, May 2004); Cavanagh and Huston,
“Family Instability and Children’s Early Problem Behavior” (see note 24).
30. McLanahan and Sandefur, Growing Up with a Single Parent (see note 4).
31. Ibid. Differentials in income also accounted for nearly half the lower school performance of children in
single-parent versus two-parent families, although they explained relatively little of the gap in behavior
problems between the two groups. Other studies examining the mediating role of income include:
Elizabeth Thomson, Thomas L. Hanson, and Sara S. McLanahan, “Family Structure and Child Well-Being:
Economic Resources vs. Parental Behavior,” Social Forces 73 (1994): 221–42; Brown, “Family Structure
and Child Well-Being” (see note 7); Osborne, McLanahan and Brooks-Gunn, “Young Children’s Behavioral
Problems in Married and Cohabiting Families” (see note 9).
32. This research is reviewed by Sharon Bzostek and Audrey Beck, “Family Structure and Child Health
Outcomes in Fragile Families,” Working Paper 08-11-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child
Wellbeing, 2008); and by Robert Wood, Brian Goesling, and Sarah Avellar, “The Effects of Marriage on
Health: A Synthesis of Recent Research Evidence,” report prepared by Mathematica Policy Research for
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 2007
(http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/marriageonhealth/report.pdf [accessed October 4, 2009]).
33. Janet Currie and V. Joseph Hotz, “Accidents Will Happen? Unintentional Injury, Maternal Employment,
and Child Care Policy,” Journal of Health Economics 23, no. 1 (2004): 25–59.
34. Anne Case and Christina Paxson, “Mothers and Others: Who Invests in Children’s Health?” Journal of
Health Economics 20 (2001): 301–28.
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35. This literature is reviewed in Lawrence Berger, Christina Paxson, and Jane Waldfogel, “Mothers, Men, and
Child Protective Services Involvement,” Child Maltreatment 14 (2009): 263–76. See also Jane Waldfogel,
The Future of Child Protection (Harvard University Press, 1998).
36. See also discussion in Sara McLanahan, “Fragile Families and the Reproduction of Poverty,” Annals
of American Academy of Political and Social Science 62, no. 1 (2009): 111–31; and Sara McLanahan
and Christine Percheski, “Family Structure and the Reproduction of Inequality,” Annual Review of
Sociology 34 (2008): 257–76.
37. Nancy Reichman, Julien Teitler, and Sara McLanahan, “Fragile Families: Sample and Design,” Children
and Youth Services Review 23, nos. 4/5 (2001): 303–26.
38. Osborne, McLanahan, and Brooks-Gunn, “Young Children’s Behavioral Problems in Married and
Cohabiting Families” (see note 9); Carlson and Corcoran, “Family Structure and Children’s Behavioral and
Cognitive Outcomes” (see note 28).
39. Reichman, Teitler, and McLanahan, “Fragile Families” (see note 37).
40. Craigie, “Effects of Paternal Presence and Family Instability on Child Cognitive Performance” (see note 25).
41. Shirley Liu and Frank Heiland, “Should We Get Married? The Effect of Parents’ Marriage on Out-of
Wedlock Children,” Working Paper 07-02-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, 2008).
42. Craigie, “Effects of Paternal Presence and Family Instability on Child Cognitive Performance” (see note 25).
43. Carey Cooper and others, “Partnership Instability and Child Wellbeing during the Transition to
Elementary School,” Working Paper 08-08-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, April
2010).
44. Osborne, McLanahan, and Brooks-Gunn, “Young Children’s Behavioral Problems in Married and
Cohabiting Families” (see note 9); Cynthia Osborne, “Is Marriage Protective for All Children? Cumulative
Risks at Birth and Subsequent Child Behavior among Urban Families,” Working Paper 07-09-FF
(Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, April 2007).
45. Rebecca Ryan, Ariel Kalil, and Lindsey Leininger, “Low-Income Mothers’ Private Safety Nets and
Children’s Socioemotional Wellbeing,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 71, no. 2 (2009): 278–98.
46. Marcy Carlson, Sara McLanahan, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, “Do Good Partners Make Good Parents?
Relationship Quality and Parenting in Two-Parent Families,” Working Paper 06-34-FF (Princeton: Center
for Research on Child Wellbeing, November 2006); Marcy Carlson and others, “Couples as Partners and
Parents over Children’s Early Years” (see note 14); Paula Fomby and Cynthia Osborne, “The Relative
Effects of Family Instability and Mother/ Partner Conflict on Children’s Externalizing Behavior,” Working
Paper 08-07-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, May 2008).
47. Cynthia Osborne and Sara McLanahan, “Partnership Instability and Child Wellbeing,” Journal of Marriage
and Family 69 (2007): 1065–83. This result was also found in a study using data from the NICHD Study
of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which is important since that study included a measure of
teacher-reported behavior problems (whereas the measure in FFCWS is mother-reported). See Cavanagh
and Huston, “Family Instability and Children’s Early Problem Behavior” (see note 24).
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48. Carey Cooper and others, “Partnership Instability and Child Wellbeing during the Transition to
Elementary School” (see note 43).
49. Audrey Beck and others, “Relationship Transitions and Maternal Parenting,” Working Paper 08-12-FF
(Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, January 2009).
50. Cynthia Osborne and Sara McLanahan, “Partnership Instability and Child Wellbeing” (see note 47).
51. Bzostek, “Social Fathers and Child Wellbeing” (see note 18).
52. Liu and Heiland, “Should We Get Married?” (see note 41).
53. Bzostek and Beck, “Family Structure and Child Health Outcomes in Fragile Families” (see note 32).
54. See also a FFCWS study that finds that instability is associated with mothers’ obesity but not with children’s
obesity; see Earle Chambers, Christiane Duarte, and Frances Yang, “Household Instability, Area Poverty,
and Obesity in Urban Mothers and Their Children,” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved
20, no. 1 (2009): 122–34.
55. They also examine the role of reverse causality and find some evidence that children who are in poorer
health are less likely to have their parents cohabiting at the next survey wave.
56. Lisa Bates and Julien Teitler, “Immigration and Low Birthweight in the US: The Role of Time and Timing,”
Working Paper 08-15-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, July 2008). In this study and
others, low birth weight is typically defined as a birth weight of less than 2,500 grams.
57. Nancy Reichman and others, “Infant Health Production Functions: What a Difference the Data Make,”
Health Economics 18, no. 7 (2009): 761–82.
58. Yolanda Padilla and Nancy Reichman, “Low Birthweight: Do Unwed Fathers Help?” Children and Youth
Services Review 23, nos. 4/5 (2001): 505–30. See also Julien Teitler, “Father Involvement, Child Health,
and Maternal Health Behavior,” Children and Youth Services Review 23, nos. 4/5 (2001): 403–26.
59. Kristen Harknett, “Why Are Children with Married Parents Healthier? The Case of Pediatric Asthma,”
Population Research and Policy Review 28, no. 3 (2009): 347–65; Kristen Harknett, “Children’s Elevated
Risk of Asthma in Unmarried Families: Underlying Structural and Behavioral Mechanisms,” Working
Paper 05-01-FF (Princeton: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, July 2005).
60. Shirley Liu and Frank Heiland, “New Estimates of the Effect of Parental Separation on Child Health,”
in Causal Analysis in Population Studies: Concepts, Methods, and Applications, edited by Henriette
Engelhardt, Hans Peter Kohler, and Alexia Furnkranz-Prskawetz (Vienna: Springer, 2009), pp. 167–99.
61. Neil Guterman and others, “Fathers and Maternal Risk for Physical Child Abuse,” Child Maltreatment 14
(2009): 277–90.
62. Berger, Paxson, and Waldfogel, “Mothers, Men, and Child Protective Services Involvement” (see note 35).
63. The authors were not able to determine whether the increased risk was due to abuse or neglect on the part
of the mother, the social father, or another caregiver.
64. See Terry-Ann Craigie, Jane Waldfogel, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, “Family Structure, Stability, and Early
Child Health and Development,” Princeton University and Columbia University mimeo, 2010, for full results.
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65. Ibid.
66. See, for example, Janet Currie, “Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Socioeconomic Status, Poor Health in Childhood,
and Human Capital Development,” Journal of Economic Literature 47, no. 1 (2009): 87–122; and Janet
Currie and others, “Child Health and Young Adult Outcomes,” Journal of Human Resources, forthcoming.
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